Commentary

• Reach Your Customer.

  • Your marketing sizzles and your know precisely who your customer is.  Now you have to introduce the two or you'll wind up like Katrina in this episode: twiddling your thumbs in an apartment you just whipped into shape while the world passes you by.  Katrina had overseen a first-rate renovation and seemed well on her way to winning the task of increasing rent by the highest percentage.  But her inability to get the word out left Versacorp at the mercy of heir sole prospective tenant.  The single offer can be a salesman's nightmare, and Katrina--a successful realtor--should have known it.  Just one more bidder might have made the difference between victory and the boardroom.

• Recognize Potential. 

  • The first place project managers Katrina and Troy looked at was in better shape and had a higher assessed value that the second.  But real estate veteran Katrina knew that appearances could be deceiving.  "It looks like a disaster," she told her team.  "However, if you have vision you could do a lot more with the second apartment."   Katrina was right; unfortunately, it didn't do her any good.  Troy overheard her conversation and nabbed the promising second apartment for Protege.  Although Katrina moved mountains to prove her own prediction false, masterminding a major overhaul of the first apartment and persuading a contractor to refurbish both kitchen and bathroom for $1500, Troy's team nevertheless raised their rent by a much higher percentage than Katrina's.  Katrina's eye for potential had inadvertently handed the competition an insurmountable advantage.

• Handle Your Workers Well. 

  • Katrina took a lot of flak for sometimes relying on charm over substance, but her interactions with her contractor in this episode showed that the two can be synonymous.  First, she secured his services for a sum that Bill and Nick laughingly acknowledged they could never have gotten anyone to agree to, and later, when the erratic Tammy made the workers miserable, Katrina let them know that they could tell her to get lost.  Katrina connected with her contractor in a relaxed, confident, and even friendly manner.  The results were palpable.  Bill estimated that she'd won the team $20,000 worth of work for a fraction of that figure.  Katrina's deft handling of her contractor was a smashing success.

• Know When to Shut Up. 

  • Trump barely noticed Tammy in the boardroom.  She stood in the back while Katrina complained to Trump about Troy's unscrupulous behavior.  Troy had gained the upper hand at the beginning of the task by writing "I want exactly what you want" on the slip of paper on which he was supposed to reveal which apartment he wanted.  Defeat did nothing to cool Katrina's anger.  She vehemently denied that she had been duped and her team backed her up.  "I've been duped many times," Trump admitted.  "Everyone has been." Still, Versacorp presented a united front in Katrina's defense.  Until a voice chimed in from the back.  "I think we did get duped, to be honest," said Tammy, her internal editor characteristically out to lunch.  Her teammates were furious, and Trump was not impressed.  "Your disloyalty has been just terrible," he said.  With one ill-considered comment, Tammy brought herself out of the margins and into Trump's crosshairs.

Lessons Learned